British Enviro Regulators Try To Sweat it Out, Throw in Towel

By Selina Williams

Pity the poor junior staff left behind in the U.K.’s Department of Energy and Climate Change this summer.

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What happened to foggy London town?

While the ministers are on holiday, those remaining at DECC sweltered indoors in muggy London August temperatures after the air-conditioning was switched off to raise the building’s energy rating from its rock bottom position.

“They’re just trying to get the rating up from the lowest level so it doesn’t look so bad,” joked one DECC official after a sweaty news conference earlier this week.

The air conditioning has since been switched back on after staff complained. But the problem remains.

On a scale of A to G, the green-colored band A rated between zero and 25 is the most energy efficient while red-colored G is the least with a rating of over 150.

DECC functions at 165 and emits 1,330 tons of carbon dioxide a year. It performs even worse than average as a rating of 100 is typical for this type of building.

This comes despite Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband’s recently announced plans to cut the energy use of UK buildings and reduce emissions to near zero as part of a government target to cut the country’s overall emissions 80% by 2050.

To be sure, it’s partly not DECC’s fault. The ministry only moved into the current premises last October after it was created so they haven’t had much time to improve the building and it’s unclear how much they can realistically do before the next election, which has to be held by May. The same has also been said of their policies on climate change and energy efficiency.

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